1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of networking, and specifically to the field TCP/IP networking.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of devices use multiple network ports, with each port assigned to a specific task. For example, a residential Internet firewall/gateway device may have two Ethernet ports, one marked “Internet” and the other “LAN” (local area network). If the user's Ethernet cables are plugged into the wrong ports, the device will not function properly. However, both ports are identical electrically. The assignment of one of them as the “Internet” port is made by the unit's software.
Although ports on a device are often prominently displayed, users frequently plug cables into the wrong port. This causes confusion and frustration among users, and results in increased customer support costs to the unit's provider.
In addition to port configuration, other aspects of network unit configuration are unnecessarily cumbersome. For example, many router units, such as home use routers, will leave the factory pre-set with an arbitrary network address. If such a unit is installed into a network with nodes set to a different address, it must be changed. However, changes made for the address often result in communication failures with the rest of the network. Because home routers generally use network-based setup, this presents a deadlock. One solution is to temporarily change the address of a computer on the network to enable it to talk to the router, and then change it back after the router's address has changed. However, such approaches are too cumbersome for the users and often results in unintended errors.
From the above, there is a need for a system and process to (1) automatically configure a device to detect a fast side and a slow side of network, (2) determine where an existing network includes dynamic host configuration protocol before launching such a service, and (3) allow for adaption to an existing environment rather than forcing a preconfigured setting to a network.